This invention relates generally to clothes drying systems, and, more particularly, to tumbling aids for clothes dryers.
An appliance for drying articles such as a clothes dryer for drying clothing articles typically includes an exterior cabinet and internal rotating drum for tumbling clothes and laundry articles therein. One or more heating elements heats air prior to air entering the drum, and the warm air is circulated through the dryer as the clothes are tumbled to remove moisture from the laundry articles contained in the drum.
Some known clothes dryers utilize an extended surface on the interior of the drum, called a baffle to facilitate the tumbling of the clothes. Typically the baffles are mounted on the inside surface of the drying drum to lift the clothes into the warm air stream and to tumble the clothes towards the approximate rotational center of the drum. The shapes and sizes of baffles vary greatly but in general have uniform height that extends across the depth of the cylindrical drum. Other known baffles have varying heights across the depth of the drum and may be curved to better lift the clothes to as they tumble within the drum.
Known baffle designs may reduce the usable capacity in the drum, which, in turn, may increase the number of loads of laundry required by the operator and may restrict the air flow within the drum increasing the time to dry the clothes contained within the drum. Increasing the usable capacity of the dryer drum allows the operator to add additional laundry, reduce the number of drying operations, dry the clothes faster, and conserve energy.